SDG 14: Life Below Water

Our organization is dedicated to encouraging marine research at or near our location at the centre of the Salish Sea and to providing or facilitating educational programmes, workshops and hands-on activities which will create awareness and promote a better public understanding of our marine ecosystems

We collaborate with researchers, educators, NGO's and educational institutions to encourage both students and the general public to become involved as professionals or as citizen scientists to be stewards for the future of our ocean environment.

The organization works primarily at a federal level, as well as augmenting campaigns in the provinces and territories, to support the minimum 17% federal protection target by 2020 for Canada's terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and for a 50% protection target by 2030 that includes ecosystem-specific targets. The organization will ultimately be working for a federal Endangered Ecosystems Act to protect all native and endangered ecosystems across the country on a much larger scale based on conservation biology principles and traditional ecological knowledge.

Founded in Sointula, a small fishing village on the Central Coast of British Columbia, our influence has grown to be national. Living on the coast, we are reminded each day that it’s not just about the fish—it’s about the fish and the people. We advocate for oceans that are managed for the common good, according to science-based policies that consider ecosystems in their entirety.

Our contributions are helping to reduce harmful human impacts on the ocean.

Participation in the Global Ghost Gear Initiative is open to fishing industry, private sector, corportaes, civil society, academia, and governments that have an interest in contributing to the solution to ghost gear worldwide. Participation is formalized through a signed statement of support.

Project AWARE works with scuba divers across the globe to protect underwater environments

Founded in 2003 by award-winning author and journalist David Helvarg, and with support from public figures such as Dr. Sylvia Earle, Robert Kennedy Jr., Ralph Nader, Philippe Cousteau, Rep. Sam Farr (D CA) and former Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R MD).

With offices in Washington DC and Richmond California, we convene key stakeholders including conscientious corporate and commercial entities such as Google, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Northern Trust, Ocean First Divers and Legal Sea Foods.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is the world's leading, independent non-profit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration, and education. Our scientists and engineers push the boundaries of knowledge about the ocean to reveal its impacts on our planet and our lives.

The High Seas Alliance is a partnership of organizations and groups aimed at building a strong common voice and constituency for the conservation of the high seas. The Alliance is currently made up of 40+ NGOs plus the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

In the 1960s, O’Barry was employed by the Miami Seaquarium, where he captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American TV series of the same name.  He also trained Hugo, the first orca kept in captivity east of the Mississippi.  When Kathy, the dolphin who played Flipper most of the time died in his arms, O’Barry realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong. From that moment on, O’Barry knew what he must do with his life.